Wisconsin welders ready to go as Line 5 work ramps up

Union welder Fred Hankel in annual training at Steamfitters Local 601 Training Center in Madison, Wisconsin.

Welders sharpen their skills at Steamfitters Local 601 in Madison

March 20, 2026

After years of planning, Enbridge’s Line 5 Wisconsin Segment Relocation Project is moving from blueprints to boots on the ground—and for many Steamfitters Local 601 welders, it’s an opportunity they’ve been waiting for.

The project will replace 12 miles of the existing Line 5 pipeline with a new 41‑mile route around the Bad River Reservation. As construction teams begin to mobilize, communities across northern Wisconsin are preparing for an influx of workers, commerce, and long-awaited economic momentum.

For Fred Hankel, a journeyman welder with Steamfitters Local 601 in Madison, the anticipation is personal.

“If I could get on Enbridge’s Line 5 project, it’d be heaven sent for me,” he said. “That’s close to home, and I wouldn’t have to travel.” Hankel grew up just down the road in Arena, Wisconsin—making the project feel like coming full circle.

A project labor agreement ensures the relocation will be built by a fully unionized, highly trained workforce—creating about 700 family-supporting construction jobs and injecting millions of dollars into nearby towns.

Steamfitters 601 is part of North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), a coalition representing 3 million skilled craft professionals across 14 national and international unions. NABTU, together with the United Steelworkers, has been a vocal supporter of the Line 5 relocation in Wisconsin, emphasizing the economic ripple effects for workers across the Midwest and Canada.

In filings with regulators, the unions warned that shutting down Line 5 would have far-reaching consequences. Operating and maintaining the pipeline, they noted, provides thousands of union members with “meaningful work and solid, middle-class wages and benefits.” A shutdown, they argued, would jeopardize workers’ livelihoods now and for years to come.

Continuous education, pride in craft, and strict safety standards 

For longtime welder Neil Sikich, the project represents both continuity and pride. Born and raised in Ashland, he has worked on multiple Enbridge projects dating back to the late 1990s.

“Local 601 plans on building that pipeline together with other unions,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the start of the project.”

Sikich says the craftsmanship behind pipeline welding is meticulous—and personal. “We keep our skills up with yearly training. The integrity of the welds is second to none. The quality, the pride, it all comes together.”

Local 601’s training facility in Madison plays a key role in maintaining that excellence. Welders return year after year to sharpen skills, adopt new techniques, and—most importantly—prioritize safety.

“All the pipelines have to be safe—not just for the people working on them, but for the communities they are traveling through,” Hankel explained. “That’s why Enbridge makes us go through the safety standards they do—all the procedures are written that we have to follow.”

To welders like Hankel, the work is both a trade and a calling.

“Pipelines are by far the safest way to transport crude oil and natural gas,” he said. “This is our life, and our careers. It’s rewarding in the end when you can see a finished project and see all the people who benefit from it.”

Line 5 currently supplies 10 regional refineries across Ontario, Quebec, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The products made from that crude—fuel, asphalt, plastics and everyday consumer goods—touch millions of lives.

And soon, a new stretch of that pipeline will carry not just energy, but the craftsmanship and pride of Wisconsin’s union welders.